A Florida judge has blocked a law backed by Governor Ron DeSantis that sought to prohibit teaching or business practices that state members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others, CBS News reports.
Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a temporary injunction against the law, which has been referred to as the “Stop Woke” act.
Walker, in his decision, called the law “positively dystopian,” adding that the legislation works against the basic tenants of democracy.
“Our professors are critical to a healthy democracy, and the State of Florida’s decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all,” Walker wrote. “If our ‘priests of democracy’ are not allowed to shed light on challenging ideas, then democracy will die in darkness.”
In the lengthy ruling rebuking the “Stop Woke” act, Walker also likened the act to the George Orwell novel, “1984.”
“‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,’ and the powers in charge of Florida’s public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of ‘freedom.'”
DeSantis has fully backed the legislation since its inception, stating that “woke ideology” has been a form of “Cultural Marxism.”
“What you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions and I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis previously stated. “They really want to tear at the fabric of our society.”
A spokesperson for DeSantis says that they plan to appeal the ruling.